Power of the Dragon Flame [Import]

Power of the Dragon Flame [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
The fourth album for the Italian progressive metal act. Ten tracks including, 'In Tenebris', 'Knightrider Of Doom' & 'Power Of The Dragonflame'. 2002.

Tracks:

In Tenebris
Knightrider Of Doom
Power Of The Dragonflame
The March Of The Swordmaster
When Demons Awake
Agony Is My Name
Lamento Eroico
Steelgods Of The Last Apocalypse
The Pride Of The Tyrant
Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness: I. Angeli Di Pietra Mistica/II. Warlords Last Challenge/III. ...And The Legend Ends

Album Description

Sensational sales figures, almost a cult status amongst their fans all over the world, sold-out shows, high chart positions and thrilling performances at almost every important European metal Festival: The Italian formation Rhapsody, with their three previously released albums, Legendary Tales (1997), Symphony Of Enchanted Lands (1998) and Dawn Of Victory (2000) as well as the speciallly priced Album, Rain Of A Thousand Flames released last Autumn, has been able to create a totally new and unique style called 'Hollywood Metal' and to fascinate fans all over the world with it.

Power Of The Dragonflame, their fourth full length album is another episode of the exciting Emerald Sword saga and one which brings the saga to an end. Power Of The Dragonflame took form in familiar surroundings, namely in the Wolfsburg 'Gate Studios` with Sascha Paeth and Miro, themselves experienced musicians (Heavens Gate, Virgo etc) and who have been closely tied to the success of the Italian band since the beginning of Rhapsody's career. Similar to their previous releases, the musicians Luca Turilli (guitar), Alessandro Staropoli (keyboards), Fabio Lione (vocals) and Alex Holzwarth (drums) let off a spectacular firework display of ideas, showing themselves not only as heavy, fast and aggressive, but also epic and orchestral. After the sensitive intro, 'In Tenebris' and exciting tracks such as 'Knightrider Of Doom`, 'The March Of The Swordmaster' and 'Steelgods Of The Last Apocalypse' the album culminates in the closing, over 19 minute long 'Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness', which begins with a calm acoustic guitar prologue, accelerates in typical Rhapsody fashion and which includes the expressive, unusually theatrical voice of singer Fabio Lione. 'Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness' combines all of the band's strengths: their rhythmic finesse, their epic basic structures and the hymn-like vocals.

Customer Reviews:

Medieval gospel opera metal...what?.......2007-05-26

This cd is not epic at all. Nor is the band. I bought this cd thinking it would just be normal metal and boy oh boy what did I get myself into. After repeatedly trying to get into it, I cannot take this cd's content seriously at all one bit. With a song like Agony is my Name, I cant prevent myself from laughing at it. I ended up giving this cd away to a friend it was so terrible. I like the way the band thought, but their lyrics are absolutely terrible.

Epic and powerful.......2005-10-10

I purchased Rhapsody's 'Power of the Dragonflame' after I have listened to 'Symphony of Enchanted Lands 2'. Frankly, 'Power of the Dragonflame' is just fantastic. The music is symphonic, aggressive and powerful. It contains the ingredients of a great ablum - instrumentation, great arrangement, massive choirs, opera singings etc. For this ablum, I particularly like Knightrider - especially the moment when the guitar solo breaks though. Power of the Dragonflame - the chorus. Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness - the best song of this ablum. I can't wait to acquire all of Rhaposdy's full length releases.

Powerfull Stuff.......2005-04-04

Ohh yeah! this is the real thing when it comes to HeavyMetal. ive heard the real good stuff before but this is in a league of its own. definatley a must for anyone, even if they do not like metal.

The Algalord Chronicles come to a dazzling finish.......2005-02-07

The self-titled "Mighty Warriors of Epic Symphonic Hollywood Metal" are back with their fifth and most aggressive studio album. All the Rhapsody fanfare is there - ten tracks, the first of which is completely orchestral, an amazing production - complete with perfectly synthesized symphonies - and of course, dragons, dragons, dragons.

The album, which completes the Emerald Sword saga, is more aggressive and ambitious than its predecessor, the somewhat lackluster Dawn of Victory. The typical, 4-minute, double-bass epics are ready for battle ("Knightrider of Doom", "Power of the Dragonflame", "Pride of the Tyrant") as well as the Viking parades and ballads ("March of the Swordmaster", "Lamento Eroico"). The peculiar tracks are those in which Rhapsody experiment a little. In "When Demons Awake", Fabio Leone abandons his operatic wail and turns to a high-pitched grunt (as it can only be described). The multiple symphonic melodies created for "Steelgods of the Last Apocalypse" are among the best the Italian quartet has created in their magic, medieval brew. Finally, the album closer, "Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness" is a 3-part, 19-minute magnum opus. Beginning with a Spanish guitar and ending with a different rendition of "Epicus Furor", the opening track, the song never gives up. The majestic choirs, blink-of-an-eye guitars and chaotic orchestration are there to make all 19-minutes seem like an absolutely solid piece of metal brilliance.

My one complaint: the spoken word. Rhapsody are (in)famous for inserting "moving" pieces of spoken word, and sadly, this song is no exception. This notwithstanding, it is for less than 1 minute of the total 19. In the power metal genre, there are no bands that reach the level set by Rhapsody, and Power of the Dragonflame underscore their position as Music-Lords of the Metal Kingdom.

See also: Rhapsody - Symphony of Enchanted Lands, Rhapsody - Dawn of Victory, Kamelot - Epica

WOW.......2005-02-02

This epic masterpiece from the Italian crew is absolutely amazing! Only Mozart, Bach, and Burzum have grabbed my attention like this album has. Epic melodies, amazing guitar solos (and yes, there are some weird Nintendo type sounds), loud choirs and great atmosheric sounds! The Emerald saga ends on this great cd, Buy!

Average customer rating:

Great album
Good but they are getting stuck
another great album
Stunned me on the first listen
Pure Musical Genious

Power of the Dragon Flame
Rhapsody
Manufacturer: Import [Generic]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Progressive Metal | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Hard Rock & Metal | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Symphony of Enchanted Lands
Rain of a Thousand Flames
Symphony of Enchanted Lands, Vol. 2: The Dark Secret
King of the Nordic Twilight

ASIN: B0000631QX
Release Date: 2002-02-20

Tracks:

In Tenebris
Knightrider Of Doom
Power Of The Dragonfalme
The March Of The Swordmaster
When Demons Awake
Agony Is My Name
Lamento Eroico
Steelgods Of The Last Apocalypse
The Pride Of The Tyrant
Gargoyles, Angels Of Darkness: I. Angeli Di Pietra Mistica/II. Warlocks' last Challenge/III. ...And The Legend Ends

Album Description

The fourth album for the Italian progressive metal act. Ten tracks including, 'In Tenebris', 'Knightrider Of Doom' & 'Power Of The Dragonflame'. 2002.

Customer Reviews:

Great album.......2003-06-15

This album, that get the story of the previous albums to and end, is a very interesting piece to apriciate the evolution of the sound of this Italian band. For those who never listened this band before you will find a very symphonic and epic band that perfectly join the agresive and heroitic emotions of the music with the epic history here told, a very good albun to explore, but it is higly recomended that you hear the previous ones before. For the ones that have already listen to the band before I consider this albun an interesting resume of the sound of Rhapsody. With more symphonic parts a la "Symphony of Enchanted Lands" but a lot more fast and agresive like "Down of Victory" Rhapsody has riched with this album a very enjoyable intermediate point between those styles. But this havent prevent Rhapsody from exploring. To prove this When Deamonds Awake features a more Black influenced style not only with the guitar but also with Favio's way of singing(a taste of how Rhapsody in black would sound). Another interesting thing is the rol of their native lenguage in this album that include an entire song in italian and more italian parts on other lyrics that fits incredible to the Hollywood Metal Style.
The art work is incredible and the story fully related on the songbook with aditional parts that are not singed to fulfill the story. Rhapsody is simply incredible, the production of this album may be the best so far. I like Symphony of Enchanted Lands the most in terms of composition, but this albun doesnt saty back, but with a more elaborated production and a more expirienced band.

Un albun que resume los etylos explorados por la banda. Una increible convinación entre la magnificencia de la música y la epicidad y herocismo que trasmite concorde a las letras. La historia continuada entre los albunes previos ahora llega a su fin. El sonido es un perfecto intermedio entre la velocidad y agresividad de Down of Victory y la instrumentalización y orquestalización de Enchanted Lands, sin embargo explora cosas nuevas aún, como cantar en Italiano e incorporar elementos black metal en algunas canciones (una probada de como podría sonar Rhapsody in Black). Altamente recomendable.

Good but they are getting stuck.......2003-03-08

I enjoy this CD immensly as I do with all Rhapsody cd. However I can tell that they are starting to cop their own style. Not that this is good or bad. But their music is becoming predicatble and similar. The compositions are excellent with the choir, but what would you expect from Luca. My only wish is that on his solo stuff he would use a different singer to avoid it sounding too much like Rhapsody.

All in all if you like Rhapsody you will like this album. It may not become one of your favorites but it is strong non the less.

another great album.......2002-06-24

I was greatly impressed with this album, more so with the beginning than the end. Rhapsody never ceases to amaze me as they create soaring and memorable choruses, Malmsteen-esque solos, and "epic" song writing. It seems that they never run out of ideas, and this album proves it. However, it failed to captivate my interest as long as their previous releases had. This is still a great album that's worthy of the praise it receives.

Stunned me on the first listen.......2002-06-04

This album is awesome. I wasn't sure whether to start or end this review with that since I'm not totally sure how to accurately describe something like this, but I'll put it twice, once where I just did, at the beginning, and one more time at the end.
"Power Of The Dragonflame" is an apt way to describe what you get with this album. It's heavy, powerful, epic, and in general, good enough to butt heads with Dawn of Victory, Rhapsody's best album in my opinion.
The thing about this CD is how it all fits somehow. The first 5 tracks annihilate, the intro being possibly the best they've done, there are only a few tracks that are somewhat below par (Lamento Eroico, Agony Is My Name) but still good, and there are only 10 tracks on the album, meaning Rhapsody does a great job of keeping the filler (if you can call it filler) to a total minimum and giving us mostly their very best efforts. This album has the feel of a classic heavy metal recording, where you may have gripes with a few things, maybe it's not perfect in your opinion, but it doesn't matter, because everything about the music is right. If Rhapsody has struggled to be taken seriously by critics and fans alike before, this album should silence the majority with it's sheer power, beauty, hunger, and overall, maturity.
Along with the usual awe-inspiring epic arrangements, orchestrations, and delightfully aggressive guitarwork, one of the main stars of this album is Mr. Fabio Lione. He delivers some of his most diverse and ultimately convincing work to date on songs like "The March of the Swordmaster" (classic, Irish-inspired Rhapsody meshed with some lower vocal octaves), "Lamento Eroico" (Lione's venture into Pavarotti-esque territory), and "When Demons Awake" (a convincing, kicking, almost black metal vocal performance), driving the songs home with the passion and personality they need and raising himself a cut or three above even many other current Euro/Power metal vocalists, not to mention most vocalists in music period. Luca Turelli goes for some much more aggressive steps guitar wise this time around but manages to keep the heart and soul of his compositions fresh and intact, without sacrificing the melody, and the soaring guitarwork on "Steelgods Of The Last Apocalypse" and "The March of The Swordmaster" proves this. Alex Starapoli is excellent as always on keyboards, though he tends to use less varied effects on this album for his solos. The drums do their job, the bass work is much better (and more in the mix), and even the narrator, Sir Jay Lansford, who is usually somewhat painful to listen to, gives a good and fitting performance in the album's 19 minute finale to the Emerald Sword saga, "Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness", which will leave you with that breathless smile on your face after it's over that you get upon listening to a new purchase and coming away totally satisfied.
All in all, this has a weak spot or two, but that's exactly what it means - one or two. Once more for good measure, this album is awesome. One of the best of 2002.

Pure Musical Genious.......2002-05-15

First off I would just like to boast about owning this album before the rest of North America gets to.

Rhapsody has done it again, this could be the power metal album of the year with very few bands being able to touch it in terms of technicality, style, songwriting and beautiful musicianship. Power of the Dragonflame has it all, powerful double bass drumming, insane guitars and one of the top voices in the genre. Luca Tirilli has done an amazing job on both the lead and rhythm guitars, Alex Staropoli on the absolutely perfect keyboards and piano, Fabio Lione on the lead vocals and of course Alex Holzwarth on the drums.

As you can probably tell from the title of cd, Power of the Dragonflame is indeed cheesy, but don't let that stop you. Its an incredible album and I haven't stopped listening to it.

Almost all of the songs are fast and powerful, with only Lamento Eroico and Gargoyles, Angels of darkness being a bit slower in pace. My favorite song is easily When Demons Awake, the song very fast and has some of the most kickass vocals and dueling guitar/keyboard solo's.

The packaging for the cd is kickass as well, it comes in a standard jewel case and features some real nice artwork. The booklet is thick and features lyrics and some other extra stuff. The actual disc itself has the best art on it of all, the picture of the dragon is awesome. This cd is worth the cash.

Tracks:

In Tenebris
Knightrider of Doom
Power of the Dragonflame
March of the Swordmaster
When Demons Awake
Agony Is My Name
Lamento Eroico
Steelgods of the Last Apocalypse
Pride of the Tyrant
Garoyles, Angels of Darkness: Angeli Di Pietra Mistica/Warlords' ...

Album Description

Japanese limited edition of the Italian progressive metal act's 2002 and fourth album. This limited edition includes a glossy postcard with artwork by Marc Klinnert.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing.......2005-07-17

This album is pure masterpiece. Rhapsody are notorious for blending medieval/renaissance style melody and folk into their music along with the fastest and most technical soloing, sweeping and heavy riffs by our generation's Mozart, sir Luca Turilli (guitars) and thee most turbulent keyboard notes by Alex Staropoli.

As every other of their wonderful albums (such as 'Legendary Tales', 'Dawn of Victory', 'Symphony of Enchanted Lands') this concept album grasps the aggression turned positivity and again brings the band to a new brink of success with such songs as "March of the Swordmaster", "The Pride of the Tyrant", and "Agony is my Name."

Frontman Fabio Lione (Athena, Labyrinth, Vision Divine) sets his vocal keys high yet again, fullfilling the vocal arrangements for lead, operatic and backing voice, followed by Alex Holzwarth's pounding drums.

The band's line up had changed as original bassist Alessandro Lotta no longer was apart of the group. The studio bass was performed by Sascha Paeth (Luca Turilli), and long time friend of the band and producer.

The album includes the expected and unexpected. The choirs, the orchestra, the voice narration by Jay Lansford and also a full Italian sang ballad "Lamento Eroico", with a very classic operatic touch. The kings of diversity and wisdom are back again, and if you are one to enjoy something different and challenging this album is for you.

Also recommended: Rhapsody - Rain of a Thousand Flames, Luca Turilli - King of the Nordic Twilight, Kenziner - The Prophecies, Nightwish - Oceanborn, Dark Moor - Between Light and Darkness, Avantasia - The Metal Opera pt 1

Music Track:

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